To begin the second day on a high note, the students went to the Student Lectures. Six students were selected in order to delve into their essays with the rest of the participants.

Augusto Ferraro (Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina), focused on evaluating Latin America’s levels of democratic participation and governability. In order to do that, he explained how the region brought different government models without previous adaptation to the reality of local societies. In a region where delegation of the power discourages citizen participation, he left evidence of the need for modernization and adaptation of these models.

Martín Gonzalo Zapico (Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Argentina), talked about where we come from and where we are going and how it connects with reality. He asked about what is truth opening up for debate its ties with power doing a brief recap on different perspectives throughout history. He concluded that seeking the truth is key in order to find our own identity.

Amal Atrakouti, from the AI Akhawayn University of Morocco, discussed in her lecture about the international laws that everybody accepts but only represent a few. She talked about knowledge on her continent, where war can be seen daily and it can reach agreements on how it should be in a time when there should no longer be any.

Rodrigo Varela from ITBA, Argentina, emphasized the importance of coming together on the way we think and our adaptation to the new world and its possibles changes. He proposed considering facts objectively and focussing on subjective information such as opinions, arguments and ideologies in order to debate.

Lene Mortensen from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, exposed in her lecture that thanks to the internet we have at our reach more information than ever, yet there’s a great gap between information and ignorance in order to improve decision making processes. She stresses the importance of press being responsible with the truthfulness of the information that offers.

Lucas Hernán Minutella from the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (Buenos Aires, Argentina) focused on user empowerment regarding the information they generate in his talk. People are always generating information from opinions expressed to actions taken. He emphasized how ideal it would be to be neutral and not profit with others person’s information. In order to do that, users should know about the tools available and use them to take control over their own information.

During the second activity of the morning, Interactive Lessons offered different spaces where the participants could listen to and talk with experts on different fields.

Andrés Snitcofsky, graphic designer of Cargografías, showed us different charts in order to demonstrate the importance of understanding them. Visualizing them is different from making them visible and we have to understand and apprehend the information that surrounds us.

Silvana Bonnet, Canales’s Head of Communication, talked about how little knowledge there is about the needs, the language and ways of communication of hard of hearing people around the world. She focused on breaking some myths and delved into the idea of how is the inclusion of hard of hearing people in the world of hearing people. Nowadays inclusion is a theme with growing relevance.

Dan Phillips, Founder and designer of The Phoenix Commotion shared with us his work with building recycled housing from raw and free materials that served as a starting point towards discussion. “I might not win my battles but I know what my battles are”, Dan says.

Eduardo Otero Torres made us think about paradigms regarding sexuality and the social shift currently happening. He explained how sexuality has not to do with sexual practices but with our gender and how we take care of our body. Through gender’s theory he broke the idea of having one determined gender because of our sex.

Matías Attwell, Manager of Media Partnerships for Latam at Google, talked about current global tendencies regarding online consumption habits and the future that comes with virtual reality.

In a third set of activities the participants gathered for Dynamic Activities.

Debate Activity

After going through the best practices for debating with Argentine Debating Association, the participants discussed about several relevant topics while learning and practicing how to carry a debate.

Art as Activism

Amen Ra y Natasha Hopper invited the participants to reflect on different topics, exposing their ideas through poems.

Fact Checking 101

The activity by Chequeado, a local organization that works towards verifying speeches, was led by Nira Dinerstein, from the Education Team and Ana Paula Valacco, from the Communication Department. Throughout different activities the students learned about the method that the Editorial Staff uses in order to check the information, the definition of a checked statement and how to use data in everyday life to validate speeches.

Empathic Design in Action

The activity led by Escuela de Posgrado ITBA aimed for each participant to successfully take the place of someone else, achieving to empathize with their needs. Afterwards, everyone thought about different initiatives that could help to solve these needs.

During the fourth segment of the day, the participants chose between two activities: Project Generator and Mentoring Sessions. The first, focused on making a project out of an idea and the second, aimed to teach how to go on an introspective journey.

During the project generator segment, Demian Brener (Head of the OpenZeppelin project). He explained what’s blockchain and how they worked. Afterwards he shared his experience with this technology and business, where the opportunities are plenty. When blockchain first appeared, Demian had a lot of ideas that were ahead of the time, since they relied on a bigger market, like the one there’s today. However, this didn’t keep him from undertake new businesses.

Paula Coto, part of the Education team at CIPPEC, highlighted the need for educative projects that merge different players (parents, teachers, neighbours) in the bringing up of the students and the importance of working towards common objectives in order to build education. “Knowledge Communities”, the project she leads, aims for a school transformation not only as an educative institution but also as a social one, from a perspective that also includes the neighbourhood. She also seeks to know how to build a space where all those players can express themselves and give sense to a shared space.

Alexis Caporale (Director of Energy for the Baikal Institute) shared how he began his own enterprise and gave different recommendations to the participants so that they could improve in their field of passion. He highlighted the need for a workplace where the purpose and direction of the company are known. Usually, the main reason why a project does not succeed is the lack of clearness on the objectives on what’s been done. He states that this generation of participants has been made to break the rules and it’s up to them to find their passion, without taking up on obligations that are not aligned with themselves.

Melina López (Marketing Manager at Google Cloud Brasil) told us about her experience with an organization she founded with some of her university classmates, Nuevas Puertas. Even though the project finally ended, she still works with them on matters regarding education. Furthermore, she explained how was the process of getting hired at Google, where she is now Marketing Manager at Google Cloud Brasil. Among her recommendations two stand out: “Be vocal about your references”: expressing her interest of working in Google helped her find out about the internship program and “Prepare and be honest”: prepare and have an honest CV.

“ He helped me understand how a professional career evolves, that works doesn’t necessarily comes right away but that it can also arrive as a surprise”. – Vincent Le Régent (Participant, France) on Feliz Peña’s sessions.

“Even though it’s difficult, you have to be truth to yourself.” – Dora María Racca (Ex Organizer) on Rob Britton’s session.

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About us

The SABF is an event that takes place annually in Buenos Aires for 3 days in the month of August. Each year the forum receives 100 outstanding university students from around the world together with 40 leaders of business, political and academic areas.